Drug dealers convicted on federal trafficking charges received the stiffest sentences from federal court judges last year in the Midwest and the Southeast.

But the longer sentences are more driven by the type of drugs common in different states rather than judges in one region being tougher on drugs than counterparts elsewhere.

In many states with longer average sentences, methamphetamines were the most prevalent drugs in these federal cases, according to a USA Today Network analysis of U.S. Sentencing Commission data.

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Federal drug cases use guidelines to advise how judges should sentence cases based on a comparison to marijuana. Having 1 gram of heroin, for example, would result in a sentence similar to that of a kilogram of marijuana.

But a dealer with 1 gram of pure meth can expect a sentence similar to having 20 kilograms of pot, said Jennifer Mammenga, an assistant U.S. Attorney in South Dakota who prosecutes meth cases.

Meth cases netted offenders an average of 87 months in prison, compared with 63-month average prison sentences for heroin traffickers and a 26-month average for marijuana dealers, according to U.S. Sentencing Commission data.

Heroin cases, however, were predominate in a swath of states running from the greater Washington D.C. area to the Great Lakes region.

That includes places like Ohio, West Virginia and New Jersey, where the opioid epidemic has devastated communities.

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Cambodian officials torch a pile of drugs during a destruction ceremony to mark the UN's 'International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking' in Phnom Penh on June 26, 2017.
Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia torched nearly $1 billion worth of seized narcotics on Monday, a defiant show of force as police struggle to stem the rising flow of drugs in the region. Tang Chhin Sothy, AFP/Getty Images

A Thai Food and Drug Administration official moves bags with methamphetamine pills, as part of the 9,321 kg of illegal drugs to be burned in a high-power oven, during the 47th destruction of confiscated narcotics ceremony at Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya province, Thailand. Narong Sangnak, European Pressphoto Agency